Re: They finally admit autism is on the rise

[Guest guest]

Great article... this is what my family always talks about. There is more to

this autism

thing.

-saadya

>

> Quote from the article below:

>

> " Autism can't be diagnosed unless you're looking for it "

>

> Why? Because it's becoming the norm?

>

> Here is the whole article:

>

> Autism Cases on the Rise

> Study Shows Increase Is Real, Not Just Due to Changes in Diagnosis

> Criteria

>

> By J. DeNoon

> WebMD Health News

> Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

>

> Jan. 8, 2009 -- Environmental factors may be partly behind

> California's eightfold rise in new cases, a new study implies.

>

> Many researchers have believed that the continuous increase in autism

> cases over the last decade -- particularly the huge increase seen in

> California -- isn't real, but can be explained by " artifacts. "

>

> Among these artifacts are the recent broadening of the diagnostic

> criteria for autism and greatly increased diagnosis of autism at

> younger ages. Both these factors could make it seem like there are

> more autism cases than there were before.

>

> These artifacts do explain part of the rise in autism cases, shows a

> rigorous study by Irva Hertz-Picciotto, PhD, MPH, chief of the

> division of environmental and occupational health at the University

> of California, .

>

> But even taken together, they don't explain even half of the huge

> increase in cases.

>

> " When you put it all together, this doesn't come close to explaining

> the increases in the last 10 years, " Hertz-Picciotto tells

> WebMD. " The more you whittle away at this increase, the more you have

> to say that what is left over is real. ... Given that autism cases

> keep going up, and can't be fully explained by artifacts,

> environmental factors deserve serious consideration. "

>

> Hertz-Picciotto notes that her study does not account for one

> potentially huge artifact: The fact that today's parents are vastly

> more aware of autism than they were a decade ago.

>

> Autism can't be diagnosed unless you're looking for it -- so parent

> awareness has a huge potential effect on the rise of autism, says

> W. Goldstein, president and CEO of the Kennedy Krieger Institute

> and professor of environmental health sciences at s Hopkins

> University.

>

> " There is an enormous increase in awareness. Everybody knows about

> autism now, and they didn't 16 years ago, " Goldstein tells WebMD.

>

> " The awareness thing is very hard to quantify, " Hertz-Picciotto

> says. " But at some point, as more and more parents became aware of

> autism, the increase should have leveled off. Instead we see a

> continued increase in autism. "

>

> Hertz-Picciotto notes that the lion's share of autism funding is

> going to genetic studies. She argues that it's high time more effort

> was put into looking for environmental factors that cause autism in

> genetically susceptible individuals.

>

> " Time is passing and science has a lot to do to find the real causes

> of autism, " she says. " A lot has changed in the environment over the

> last 10 to 15 years. And I paint with a broad brush when I say

> environment: These changes include things like medications people

> take and assisted reproduction technology as well as what is in soaps

> and pet shampoos and toothpaste and so forth. "

>

> Autism expert L. Cuccaro, PhD, associate professor of human

> genetics at the University of Miami, praises Hertz-Picciotto's

> systematic study of the rise in autism cases. He agrees with her that

> it's time to consider environmental factors as part of the cause of

> autism.

>

> continued...

> " I don't think it is premature to look for environmental risks, "

> Cuccaro tells WebMD. " There are environmental risk factors that give

> rise to a wide range of developmental conditions, and there's no

> reason to think autism isn't one of them. And papers like this are

> critical to get to this point. Because you have to convince people it

> is not explained by all these other factors. "

>

> Environmental studies are already under way -- and research

> organizations are eager to fund them, Goldstein says. But the

> difficulty goes far beyond funding.

>

> " We only have 20,000 to 25,000 genes. But we have a hundred thousand

> environmental exposures. How do you control for that? " he says. " And

> your genes stay the same, while environmental exposures may have come

> and gone. It is difficult to do these studies -- the problem is not

> that it isn't thought to be important. "

>